Floor Loudspeaker Reviews

I was definitely not expecting to see that.

My favorite has always been the Cornwall, but I have never lived in a house with a living room large enough that would make them work, sadly. I have heard them sing with a small 40 watt/channel EL34 tube amp.

The La Scalas, and the mighty K'Horns, are more capable than any others of bringing the performance into your room, with an immediacy and effortless dynamism that sounds more like live music than any other speaker I've ever heard at any price. My bucket list speaker.

The warranty is 10 years, not 5 as stated in the specifications. Also, there are no rubber feet supplied as the reviewer stated. I know because I just bought a pair. Further, I set the speakers up all by myself and it was not difficult. I'm 58 and in average shape. I can't imagine why the reviewer would suggest it takes 3 people to mate the upper and lower cabinets.

horns amplify noise.were the scalas silent with the amps you mention?

I'd like to ask you how
You like the feel of the bass in your face in the crowd

I have bought my Scala's about three years ago and they have never ceased to amaze me. My amp is an Elekit TU8600R - 300B and 9.2Wpc and my room is not exactly big. Believe me: it does do bass, not stomach turning low but very real life like bass. Gary Peacock is standing in front of you - like bass. It plays the Beasties and Aphex Twin and never has anyone sitting next to me commented about a lack of bass. Tom Waits' scrapyard percussion sounds fantastic and they unravel Zappa's genial madness brilliantly. And the Scalas are deadquiet with my amp. The last speakers I will ever need.

Why does the reviewer say they can be bi-wired but not bi-amped? One set of posts goes to the mid/hi drivers and the other set goes to the woofer, so they should be able to be biamped.

my enduring love for the Manley Steelhead until I read this piece of audio journalism dreck. I immediately concluded that Jim Austin must have decided it would be "cute" to review some audio icons-of-yore and even cuter if they were given rave reviews. How would that not create some stir among the ol' geezer subscribers?
As it so happens I recently heard a newer set of these speakers and I could not get over how they sounded-old, tired, slow, soporific (Ambien soporific) outdated, disassociated, discontinuous, unnatural, etc. Dynamics? What good is lack of compression when you are overwhelmed by crass treble, scratchy midrange, and soft bass, all failing to integrate and instead sticking out like three sore thumbs?
Which leads to only one inevitable head scratching inquiry-has Stereophile truly, once and for all, jumped the shark?

My first loudspeakers were Klipsch Heressy Ii’s (x3) and Klipsch KG 1.2’s. The store that sold them also sold La Scalas. For bass, I had a Velodyne F1500r. At the time I would have preferrered a Carver Amazing Loudspeaker with ribbons and four 12 inch drivers per side, but couldn’t fit or budget them. Noted that I preferred the kg 1.2 bookshelf speakers for music over the heresy’.

https://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/290carver/index.html

The Klipsch horn systems really sounded honkey to me. Ok for dynamics. I much preferred a friends home theatre with 5 psb stratus gold speakers and five velodyne f1500rs, which I later upgraded to. A bit overkill in the bass though.

Obviously now, I prefer electrostatics. Quite the opposite of horns.

The new la scalas as pictured are drop dead gorgeous. Perhaps Klipsch has upgraded the sound also. The price is quite reasonable, at that of a high end phono cartridge.

My auditions at the time don’t quite pass muster, today, 30 plus years later.

I appreciate the article. As for realistic audio, the only speakers which sounded live to me were the focal grande utopia iii em, which I auditioned when they came out many years back.

Still, I wonder how a Bob carver design of today would compare to the La Scala.

I was enthusiastic about hi-fi as a teenager, but could only afford the most basic equipment. A key experience back then was the Klipschorn demonstration in a Frankfurt/Germany hi-fi studio, which I was able to sneak into. I can still remember the track being played: "Silly Putty" by Stanley Clarke. I was deeply impressed by the dynamics and the live character of the playback. Unfortunately I don't remember which amplifier and turntable was used.
A few years later I regularly went to a small nightclub in a suburb of Frankfurt. Two Klipsch La Scala speakers were used there, suspended from the ceiling. No subwoofers! The sound was very good, the bass not too deep, but very defined and powerful.
My last encounter with Klipsch loudspeakers was in 1983 I believe.
Wolfman Jack was then on the "European Tour, sponsored by Klipsch and Phase Linear" and performed in American clubs. He also did a gig at Rhein Main Air Base and an American friend took me with him.
I still have Wolfman Jack's autograph today, and a Polaroid of me with him. I had to pay an extra $20 for the Polaroid back then, on top of the entrance fee!

I am so old, I can remember the 40 (or so) years when "Klipsch sucked."
They couldn't get a good word in the Hi Fi world to save their souls.

Now, they are great, again.

I look at this with some happiness and some cynicism. It's almost hard to discuss. I partially see both sides.

Is it that they figured out what they lacked was simply a healthy bump in price and that got their audiophile bonafides sorted out? Did we slowly wake up to what they do well? Is modern Hi Fi sterile or some adjective that makes us go 'pop' when we hear actual dynamics? No set answer, but great wine conversation!

When we talk money/value: These $1100 per pair in 1978.

I'll leave it to whomever to run that through an inflation calculator. It ain't like they reinvented the wheel, you know.

Anyways....I've always enjoyed them, they have plusses and minuses, of course. But all in all, a fun product! My son stole my La Scalas and is quite the happy audiophile. If you ever get a chance to hear Elvis' vesrion of "Fever" on these, you will know what the fuss is about. (They also play the band Morphine like they were made for each other. As John marks used to say, "Different horses for different courses.")

I have a pair of the La Scala II. I found the bass a bit lean, until I added a JL Audio sub and it became awesome. They image well, they have plenty of slam and dynamic range, and sweet sounds sweet. I have them paired with a 300B SET amp. I'm glad I have them, they can give me goosebumps, given the right recording. The latest example of this was from the Analog Production's reissue of Cat Steven's Tea for the Tillerman.

So I will need a subwoofer if I want to get low bass out of my La Scala setup.

Isn't the subwoofer supposed to be the biggest speaker in the room, not the smallest?

I have twice had extended auditions with the La Scala, 30 years apart, and decided that they are one of the worst serious speakers I’ve experienced.

Great Review Alex.
But you better run like hell.
Sam Tellig wrote a rav review on the La Scala's here in 2006 and the horn haters nearly stoned him to death.
I owned my La Scala's from 1978 to 2011 when I moved to Fl and didn't have the room for them here. Like every speaker before and since, they have their weak points and strong points. The things they do right, they do better then almost any speaker ever made.
Wish I still had the room for a pair.
cent' anni,
Sal

I was excited to see what AH thought of the La Scala. That he is a fan of Altec makes me curious. I own the La scala myself, grabbed a pair at a garage sale beat up and cheap. They really caught my attention when I hooked them up for a garage system and in the house they came and put them down in front of my Kef Blade speakers. they turned my hifi world upside down. Kefs are gone, La scala were made pretty with new veneer and cleaned up. I have more fun and enjoyment listening to my 1978 La Scala with various amps than the expensive various you name it I've had it hifi brands. Alex really sums it up with the descriptions of how music is communicated and yes the bass is a problem, just a little bit of a problem. Many times I thought I could live without a sub but they are just barely lacking. I've managed to integrate a sub (I never have liked subs) and it's just enough. Other types of speakers are nice and present music in a different way but after so many years in the hobby and so many speakers I've landed. Herb reviews and also describes why he is left cold by the tall skinny speakers. They were on to something way back in the day when they made these and other speakers like these. I think I vibe with HR and AH and Art Dudley too as well as Ken Michalief and their opinions on sound and music. JVS and even JA they come from another camp. That' great we all hear it a little different and have a different taste.

My buddy was, probably still is a klipsch guy, owning the lascala’s and then the big K horns. He was so stunned when the khorns lacked the mid bass boost that he nearly returned them. I remember the lascala’s of the late 80’s having bloated, kind of thick bass, but I’ve learned setup, room size and components can make such a difference in each demo that I take it all with a grain of salt.

La Scalas, are truly speakers like no other, not just in terms of their resolution, or their dynamics, but also in the unique way they present the music to the listener. Good drivers that offer good resolution in other speakers, still may not present music in a realistic way. It still sounds like you're playing a recording and not listening to a band in person. We had also brought into question the razor sharp imaging that many modern studio monitors have: would music even sound like that, if you were attending a live performance? It may not, depending where you're sitting in the audience. Focal's Utopia headphones have probably the best imaging I've ever heard (no crossover, no room interactions, and stiff beryllium drivers), but, the music had still sounded like it was artificial, and coming from headphones. Advantages of horns to me, heard recently even cheaper vintage horn speakers: 1. you can play them really loud or really soft and the music still sounds right. You don't strain to hear details. 2. properly reproducing the dynamics that were in the original recording and not compressing them (when heard for the first time, folks may say "it sounds too bright"). 3. providing "a sound wave" that makes you overlook imaging, layering and a soundstage, that may be behind that of modern, narrow baffle, tall studio monitors. 4. high sensitivity that lets you use smaller, simpler amplifiers.

The speaker is directional at 300 Hz. This might have something to do with the so-called "big" sound. Speakers with small driver (or drivers) are more omnidirectional at that frequency.